Such vibration devices are, for example, known from DE 10 2012 015 999 A1. Here, the vibration body is the housing of the device itself. The device described therein is, for example, used in the in vitro fertilization and maturation of live egg cells, more particularly human egg cells. The medical background for mechanical agitation in in vitro fertilization is explained in the article “Mechanical Agitation During the in vitro Culture of Human Pre-Implantation Embryos Drastically Increases the Pregnancy Rate”, Clin. Lab. 11+12/2010, pages 569-576. For good chances of success, the vibration devices are used to generate oscillation frequencies of below 40 Hz, with quite small oscillation amplitudes of usually less than 1 mm, for example 0.2 mm.
The oscillation frequency and the oscillation amplitude can act on the embryo cultures with variation over time. In particular, the oscillation frequency changes over time to the effect that it, for example, increases steadily from 5 Hz to 20 Hz. With known devices, it is possible to achieve quite good results. However, a homogeneous agitation of all cultures arranged on the known devices was not always guaranteed. Also, the service life of the known devices was not always satisfactory and it was frequently not possible to achieve reliable operation with constant vibration parameters over a relatively long period of a few weeks or months.
Other devices for the mechanical agitation of cell lines are, for example, revealed by the document EP 2 419 503 B1. Here, a cell line in a culture medium in a culture flask is exposed to a vibration. The culture flask is fastened on a mobile platform mounted on a stationary carrier via spring elements.
Yet further agitation devices are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,634 A, EP 0 569 214 A2 and DE 103 02 809 A1.
It is desirable to increase the long-term reliability and durability of a vibration device.